Dr. Chris Keegan to Research New Mexican Identities in El Zaguán's Stilwell Room
/Article by Pete Warzel
The Historic Santa Fe Foundation welcomes scholar, Dr. Chris Keegan, associate professor of philosophy at State University of New York, Oneonta. Chris will be utilizing the space in our Stilwell Room for research and writing through mid-July, on a project that came to mind during a stay in Santa Fe in early 2021. He has received grants and is on sabbatical to complete his project. The impetus was the multi-layered social and cultural identities he encountered during his 2021 visit just following the 2020 summer and autumn of social unrest and protest in the wake of the COVID shutdown and the monument question nationwide.
The project is twofold:
Understanding the ideological landscape that has created identity in New Mexico, and
Using that empirical evidence to understand how Identity (universal, not just NM) is constructed.
His belief is that given the unique nature of New Mexico, it may hold the key to understanding the complexity of American Identity generally. Our state is in many ways still on the periphery of the United States, and so has always had, socially, personally, a great sense of independence. It is still something of a border that is not, or feels it is not, quite America. The ideological battle lines in the country may not make sense here.
Americans have an urge to pinpoint identity when in fact there is a multiplicity of the self. It is fluid, never stagnant. The advantage of approaching it from a philosophical discipline is that Philosophy asks the questions, hopefully the right questions, and has the discipline to clarify the answers.
Sitting with Chris, and making introductions to our friends and colleagues from other disciplines– history, anthropology, cultural preservation – it is apparent how complex the history and so the importance of place to social, political, personal identity, that New Mexico has to offer this project. Chris will share his work with us, and perhaps we can have him write a short article for our blog as he progresses in his research and thought.
His bio, developed for the grant process for this project follows.
Chris Keegan is Associate Professor of Philosophy and affiliate faculty in Africana and Latinx Studies at The State University of New York at Oneonta. He has published, presented, and taught on topics in philosophical psychology, urban philosophy, racial and ethnic identity, the philosophy of protest, and democratic theory. His current work explores the complicated forces—often unseen, misunderstood, or dismissed—that shape personal and collective identity and lead to distorted and confused personal, social, and national narratives. This work exposes the dynamics that lead to ideological and cultural prestidigitation and contribute to contested identities and civil unrest regarding monuments and memorials.
We welcome Chris Keegan to the Historic Santa Fe Foundation.